Our stay on South Mountain so far has reflected the occupancy of a new home, or one at least new for us. The little five-year old log house has its share of bumps and warts that need correcting to turn it into a proper home. So, we have had plenty to do. First we cleaned. Then we sanded and sealed. Chuck built stair rails and Anne bought good used furniture here and there. We also contacted old friends in York to let them know our status and meet. We began attending the Unitarian church in Gettysburg. We have made numerous visits to Chuck’s parents, and they have come to South Mountain a couple of times too. Our reunion with them has warmed our hearts. All this activity has been good, but it has kept us from hiking and birding. Today, for the first time, we took a walk from our new home into the wild. Anne announced last evening that we should hike today. It was to be a chilly but beautiful day. Chuck looked at the map and decided we should walk to the Appalachian Trail. And so we did. The plan was to follow a compass heading of 290 degrees from the gate on the state forest Piney Mountain Ridge Road to the Birch Run Shelter. We know this shelter well. We first visited the old shelter that was tired. It was replaced about five years ago with a lovely and airy new one. The shelter is situate a few yards from the headwaters of Birch Run, a splendid sandy mountain stream that hosts waterthrushes, Acadian flycatchers, and barred owls in season. It seemed very appropriate that we should visit the AT and the Birch Run Shelter on our first hike from our new home. The morning dawned clear and brisk; not quite frosty on the top of Piney Mountain ridge but surely so in the valleys. We enjoyed a bowl of cereal and a cup of coffee as the day brightened. Yellow rock oak and the red maple leaves fluttered in a stiff breeze. Indeed, we were dressed in layers as we walked up our lane to the Shippensburg Road “highway.” Another hundred yards took us to the ridge road where we turned off the pavement and up to the gate. There Chuck looked at the compass, and we turned into the forest. At the ridge-top the forest is mostly of chestnut, scarlet, red, and white oaks. A few maples and black gum add to the mix. The understory is green with mountain laurel interspersed with various blueberries and huckleberries. We found the going rugged, but not too bad as we descended the Piney Mountain ridge. Our new home is on South Mountain, or in the South Mountain complex. Piney Mountain is the southernmost ridge of the South Mountain complex. Our hike was to take us down the Piney Mountain ridge and across the narrow valley separating it from the main ridge of South Mounatin. Near the bottom we crossed the Caledonia – Pine Grove Furnace Road, named for the two state parks it connects. The popular camping and picnic parks are along streams in the valley. At Pine Grove Furnace is a Revolutionary War era iron furnace and a lovely lake for swimming and paddling. Our route took us across the divide between the streams leading to the two parks. Still the path crossed low country where white pine, hemlock, maples, and tulip trees replaced the oaks. We crossed barriers of rhododendron and boggy areas before climbing the next ridge. Rough going in places, but great scenery. We climbed over an intermediate ridge named Ram Hill and descended a grand talus slope. The oyster rocks were covered with large lichens and wiggled a bit as we crossed them. Coming down, Chuck said we should cross a powerline, but none appeared before we reached the gravel Birch Run Road. So, we turned on the road to return to our heading. Rather than cross the right-of-way and then resume our cross country trek, we took the path under the towers. Chuck said we should cross the first stream, ascend the next rise and then follow level ground to the right to reach the shelter. The right-of-way was in scrub oak, but an ATV and walking path made the going easy. Crossing the first hollow, Anne pointed out that there was no stream. Chuck couldn’t make sense of this so we ascended the next rise and then descended a larger valley. The climb up the opposite side was very tough. The valley was so low that the trees were not cleared from the right-of-way there. The path was minimal. On reaching a top we walked into the woods again to maintain our level. Our walk took us to a forest road and again - the powerline. We paused and noticed a group of boy scouts up the road to the right. We wandered over to see what they were up to and found that they were on the Appalachian Trail. We immediately realized that we should have left the powerline after the first draw. The drought had left the stream bed dry. Now we had already crossed the main stream on which the shelter was located and this is why we had to climb so steeply. We were on the “Big Flat” section of the main ridge of South Mountain. So, we chatted a bit with the scouts and a pair of passing bow-hunters and then walked the AT about a quarter mile to the shelter. Missing the shelter by a quarter mile on a three-mile walk was a bit embarrassing, but it is hard to maintain a good heading in a thick forest. The shelter looked as fine as when we had last seen it a few years ago. A family was taking lunch at the picnic table. We took ours at the fire ring and reviewed the shelter log. It had records going back to 2005, but the log had been lost and recovered, so there were no reports of the 2006 season. Anne had hoped to see notes from some of the hikers we had met last year on our long walk in Georgia and North Carolina. No such luck. Chuck walked down to the lovely brook in the rhododendrons but found it dry. Sad. No water at this shelter this fall. We made our return on trails and forest roads. Again we had to cross one ridge and climb another, but the longer route took us two and one-half hours versus the three and one-half hours it took us to reach the shelter cross-country. Our legs “spoke to us” as we made our last climb up the Piney Mountain ridge, but we enjoyed the easy last two miles along the familiar ridge road to our little home on the mountain. We greatly enjoyed our walk in our woods. Chuck flushed a ruffed grouse that flashed its banded tail. Sadly the “neo-tropical migrants” that grace this mountain in summer are now in the neo-tropics, but they will return in May. Meanwhile the chickadees, creepers, nuthatches, and titmice have the mountain mostly to themselves. The thinning trees let us take in the lay of the land and its vegetation. In June it will be nearly impossible to walk through the thick woods, but they will be full of bird song. We returned at 2:30 in time to join our neighbors at a party for their granddaughter who placed first in the state high-school cross-country meet. They live near Shippensburg in the broad valley that separates South Mountain from the long ridge of Blue Mountain, or, as it is called locally, North Mountain, the first of the ridges of the “Ridge and Valley” province of Pennsylvania. Tired, we left when darkness came to return again to our little house on Piney Mountain. A good day on the mountain.